Lin-Manuel Miranda Returns to THE HEIGHTS for LA Tour Stop

Broadway/L.A. has announced that Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony Award®-winning creator, composer-lyricist and original star of Broadway's 2008's Best Musical IN THE HEIGHTS will reprise the lead role of ‘Usnavi' when the show has its Southern California premiere engagement at the historic Pantages Theater in Los Angeles from June 22nd through July 11th. The gala opening night is Wednesday, June 23rd, following one lower-priced preview on Tuesday, June 22nd.

Tickets for IN THE HEIGHTS may be purchased online at www.BroadwayLA.org or by phone at
1-800-982-ARTS (2787). Tickets may also be purchased in person at the Pantages Box Office and all Ticketmaster ticket outlets. The Pantages Theatre is located at 6233 Hollywood Boulevard, just east of Vine Street, and the box office is open every day beginning at 10AM.

IN THE HEIGHTS tells the universal story of a vibrant community in New York's Washington Heights neighborhood - a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. It's a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions you take with you, and which ones you leave behind.

"To be honest, I've been itching to play with the tour cast since we began their rehearsals last fall. It has been a joy to watch Kyle Beltran and the rest of this company make this show their own, and to win over audiences all over the country. I'm excited to play at the gorgeous Pantages Theater, which I had the privilege of visiting two weeks ago. I can't think of a better way to prepare myself for the demands of playing Usnavi in the movie version of HEIGHTS. Most of all, I can't wait to get back on that stage, in Usnavi's shoes."

Lin-Manuel Miranda is the Tony Award-winning creator, composer-lyricist of Broadway's IN THE HEIGHTS who wrote the first incarnation of the show as a sophomore at Wesleyan College. Since its Broadway debut, IN THE HEIGHTS received four 2008 Tony Awards (including Best Score, Best Orchestrations, Best Choreography and Best Musical) and in 2009, Miranda was named as a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama with Quiara Alegria Hudes, the show's book writer. Off-Broadway, IN THE HEIGHTS received 9 Drama Desk Nominations (including Best Music, Best Lyrics) and an award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance. IN THE HEIGHTS also won the Lucille Lortel Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. Additionally, Lin-Manuel received an Obie Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for the show. IN THE HEIGHTS also took home a 2009 Grammy Award for its Original Broadway Cast Album.

Lin-Manuel received the 2008 Tony Award for Best Score as well as a nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. Additionally, Miranda received a 2007 Theater World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance, and the 2007 Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Male Performance courtesy of Actor's Equity Foundation. Lin-Manuel also received the ASCAP Foundation's Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award and is a National Arts Club Medal of Honor recipient.

Miranda is currently working on Universal Pictures' big screen adaptation of IN THE HEIGHTS where he will reprise his role as Usnavi. Kenny Ortega will direct. In addition, Miranda is collaborating with Tony award-winning composer Tom Kitt (Next to Normal) on the upcoming Broadway musical Bring It On. He has also contributed to the upcoming revival of Stephen Schwartz' Working and worked with Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim on Spanish translations for the 2009 Broadway Revival of West Side Story. Earlier this year, Miranda performed for President Obama and the First Family at the White House for its first-ever Poetry Jam. His TV and film credits include The Electric Company, Sesame Street,The Sopranos, House and The Sex and the City Movie.

Fans of television's HOUSE will remember Lin-Manuel's acclaimed performance in the 2009 season-opener, "Broken," in which he played Juan "Alvie" Alvarez, Dr. House's roommate and unlikely confidant while undergoing detox treatment at Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital. Tonight, Miranda returns as "Alvie" on HOUSE airing on FOX at 8:00pm ET/PT.

After IN THE HEIGHTS opened on Broadway on March 9, 2008, The New York Times' theatre critic Charles Isherwood wrote:

"It has been lamented in certain circles that they don't make Broadway musical stars the way they used to. We'll not see the likes of Ethel Merman again. Or Mary Martin or John Raitt. Or, for that matter, Patti LuPone or Mandy Patinkin. C'mon everybody, let's give a big, sad sigh. Oh, let's not. While the manufacture of matinee idols and worship-ready divas, not to mention the sturdy vehicles they rode to fame, may be in decline, the theater has not gone out of the star-making business entirely. If you stroll down to the Richard Rodgers Theater, where the spirited musical IN THE HEIGHTS opened on Sunday night, you'll discover a singular new sensation, Lin-Manuel Miranda, commanding the spotlight as if he were born in the wings. As you watch Mr. Miranda bound jubilantly across the stage, tossing out the rhymed verse currently known as rap like fistfuls of flowers, you might find yourself imagining that this young man is music personified."

IN THE HEIGHTS continues to play at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, where it has now played over 900 performances. With a book by Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award nominee Quiara Alegría Hudes and conceived by Lin-Manuel Miranda, IN THE HEIGHTS is directed by Tony Award nominee Thomas Kail. Choreography is by Andy Blankenbuehler. Music arrangements are by Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman. Scenic design is by Anna Louizos with, costume design by Paul Tazewell, lighting design by Howell Binkley and sound design by ACME Sound Partners.

IN THE HEIGHTS is produced by Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller, Jill Furman Willis, Sander Jacobs, Robyn Goodman/Walt Grossman, Peter Fine and Sonny Everett/Mike Skipper with associate producers Ruth Hendel and Harold Newman.

The performance schedule for IN THE HEIGHTS is Tuesday through Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm & 8pm, and Sunday at 1pm & 6:30pm. Please note that there will be no evening performance on Sunday, July 4th, and there will be one added weekday matinee on Thursday, July 1st at 2:00pm. (Please note that Lin-Manuel Miranda is NOT scheduled to appear in three performances: Sunday Matinee 6/27, Thursday Matinee 7/1, and Sunday, Matinee 7/11.)

IN THE HEIGHTS is presented locally by Broadway/L.A. as the seventh show of its 2010 Pantages Season.

For more information, please visit the Pantages Theatre's official website: www.BroadwayLA.org.

For more information on IN THE HEIGHTS, please visit www.InTheHeightsTheMusical.com.

 

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.